I'm not sure why people are acting like this has dragged on a long time. Free agency began on Sunday. It's still only Tuesday.

Because we wanted Lou to lock him up since last year, so technically it's been over a year. People are getting mad that we can't seem to lock him up eventhough he was given captaincy and evidently the best record in the eastern conference in 1.5 seasons with promising youth, pretty much everything he asked for.

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Kind of in the same mindset, to tell you the truth. I didn't think he was going to live up to his deal before all of this began...he's a good-to-very good player, but it looks like GMs once again can't help themselves, and feel the need to lavish superstar dollars on a player that clearly isn't one. I'm obviously not against him coming back if the price is somewhere in the vicinity of reasonable, but I'm definitely becoming indifferent about it in a hurry.

It's the way he talks in the interview I saw yesterday and the whole "list" thing that bothers me. Either you want to come back here or you don't. This Devils team has survived losing a lot better players then Parise and we will be fine without him.

I'd like Parise to stay for a fair contract but we'll see.

With the way the economy is today, having to hear this millionaire making like it's such a hard decision to make even more millions of dollars really starts to rub me the wrong way, especially when it keeps dragging on and on. It's a lot easier to ignore these facts during the rest of the year.

Rich Chere ‏@Ledger_NJDevils

For those knocking Parise's "anything is possible" comment, he says the UFA process has been extremely stressful.Expand

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The guy is out of here...he is torn and he is afraid to leave NJ and is stressed out about the decision. Dude is bugging right now.

Boooo fvckingggg hoooo. I'm gonna make millions of dollars. Such a hard decision. The more I hear from Parise the more he sounds like a diva.

It's the way he talks in the interview I saw yesterday and the whole "list" thing that bothers me. Either you want to come back here or you don't. This Devils team has survived losing a lot better players then Parise and we will be fine without him.

That's ridiculous. There's a lot of factors at play here. Bonus money. Being able to play in his hometown. Etc. etc. He's deciding where he's going to spend at least the next 5 years of his life. And he's spent his entire life focused on hockey.

With the way the economy is today, having to hear this millionaire making like it's such a hard decision to make even more millions of dollars really starts to rub me the wrong way, especially when it keeps dragging on and on. It's a lot easier to ignore these facts during the rest of the year.

That's precisely why it is such a hard decision - no matter which way he goes, he ends up fabulously wealthy. So it's about other factors - quality of life, quality of team, all these things that are difficult to measure. Joe Blow's life has nothing to do with Zach Parise's and vice versa - it's his decision, and he can take as much time with it as he likes. Would you feel the same way if some CEO hemmed and hawed about buying or selling a particular stock? Of course not. But people feel like they own athletes - it's part of why they're so well-compensated.

Boooo fvckingggg hoooo. I'm gonna make millions of dollars. Such a hard decision. The more I hear from Parise the more he sounds like a diva.

Didn't hear much of this about Ilya Kovalchuk. I don't blame Parise for feeling stressed - it seems like a really important decision.

I wake up this morning thinking the Devils offer is "competitive" but not competitive enough. I think the Devils are asking him to give up a lot of money to come back here, more than he's comfortable with and he's having second thoughts, feeling guilty about leaving.

But unlike 90% of the rest of the shills on this board, I am realistic and I take a hard-line approach to my sports fanhood. I have MULTIPLE times mentioned that I am a die-hard Jets fan (season tickets since 1988) and it is just in my blood to be a pessimistic, down in the dumps, nothing good will happen type fan.

I fully understand the Devils and Jets are two entirely different franchises with far different histories and achievements, but I just am very hard on my teams and it takes me a lot to get optimistic about something when one of my teams is involved.

That's ridiculous. There's a lot of factors at play here. Bonus money. Being able to play in his hometown. Etc. etc. He's deciding where he's going to spend at least the next 5 years of his life. And he's spent his entire life focused on hockey.

That's precisely why it is such a hard decision - no matter which way he goes, he ends up fabulously wealthy. So it's about other factors - quality of life, quality of team, all these things that are difficult to measure. Joe Blow's life has nothing to do with Zach Parise's and vice versa - it's his decision, and he can take as much time with it as he likes. Would you feel the same way if some CEO hemmed and hawed about buying or selling a particular stock? Of course not. But people feel like they own athletes - it's part of why they're so well-compensated.

Didn't hear much of this about Ilya Kovalchuk. I don't blame Parise for feeling stressed - it seems like a really important decision.

Just my personal view. Every year free agency always makes me wonder why I even give a sh!t about these guys.

I'm not sure why people are acting like this has dragged on a long time. Free agency began on Sunday. It's still only Tuesday.

That is 100% true...it hasn't even been 48 hrs yet. I think most are frustrated only because Zach made it sound like he really wanted to be here, so I think a lot of fans took that to mean that this was going to get done very quickly...now that it's taking a little longer, people starting to pick apart everything he says and does, trying to see something that may or may not be there. I doubt even Zach knew how all of this was going to shake out...I saw his clip yesterday too, and I actually saw him as a guy who's probably getting tired of all of this (and the questions that come with it), but is trying not to rush his decision, and is really trying to understand it all...easy to forget that he's a player, not an agent or a lawyer, and some of the legal-ese and lawyer/agent speak in these offers might be overwhelming for him.

I think I'm just getting indifferent because though I like Zach a lot, I don't think the franchise falls apart without him here. Teams recover and move on.

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I wake up this morning thinking the Devils offer is "competitive" but not competitive enough. I think the Devils are asking him to give up a lot of money to come back here, more than he's comfortable with and he's having second thoughts, feeling guilty about leaving.

If the Devils offer was competitive he would've signed here by now.

We aren't making it easy on him.

I don't think it's that - I bet the Devils offer is 'competitive', meaning that while it has some up front bonus, it's not massively front-loaded. So time-value-of-money wise it's well behind the other deals, but I don't think that's an enormous sticking point. And then Zach has to consider if the Devils can afford to put other guys around him. I bet if Vanderbeek weren't wearing a barrel as clothes it'd be done already.